Kinds of Leads (Teaching the Elements of Powerful Writing p. 34)
- Tubs of books for groups.
- Students read the beginnings of each book and decide if the lead is an
- Action – tells what a character does
- Question – asks a question to start the reader thinking
- Ending – gives a detail that happens at the end of the story then tells the story up to that ending
- Dialogue – begins the story with something a character says
- Students place the books in a pile underneath signs that say the above 4 words.
- Focus on one type, for instance, Action.
- Redistribute books with action leads to groups. They share and discuss what type of action is happening.
- Students choose one to model after and write some leads with different actions.
- For the next lesson, have students choose their favorite lead and continue the story.
- Save Question books for the Bat lesson (Create an Opening Scene).